1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an evaluation device and method that evaluates cruise control plans for an automatically-operated vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
A device that controls an automatic operation of a vehicle is described in, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3714258. The device predicts future behaviors that may be exhibited by a vehicle group including a vehicle near the host vehicle under the influence of the behavior of the host vehicle. The device then evaluates the validity of the future operation of the host vehicle, and indicates the desirable amount by which the host vehicle is operated from the current moment, to the future.
However, if a vehicle near the host vehicle is a manually-operated vehicle, it is difficult to predict the behaviors of this nearby vehicle because it constantly changes. Therefore, it is difficult to evaluate the safety of the cruise control plans for the host vehicle.